Sacred Heart Parish

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EPIPHANY (C)

  1. Centuries ago on the Feast of Epiphany, St. Augustine from North Africa spoke these words to his parishioners: “Awake!” – he called out to them – “For your sake God has become man. You would have suffered eternal death, if he had not been born in time. You would have been lost if he had not hastened to your aid. You would have perished if he had not come.” These words tell us what the Christmas-Epiphany mysteries meant for St. Augustine; they also promote in us the question – What do the Christmas-Epiphany mysteries mean to you and me? Do we think Augustine is right on target, or would we say that his rhetoric is somewhat excessive? Here in the parish, I often begin a funeral homily with these words: “In the face of death, the Church confidently proclaims to all the world that God has created each person for eternal life, and that Jesus, the very Son of God made flesh for our salvation, by his death and resurrection, has broken the chains of sin and death that have bound all humanity from sin’s first beginning.” If Augustine’s words are not on target, I should not say what I do say so often in a funeral homily. Yet Augustine was merely echoing in his day the words of the prophet Isaiah in our first reading today – “Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come. See, darkness covers the earth and thick clouds cover the peoples; but upon you the Lord shines, and over you appears his glory.” The gospels are the interpreters of Isaiah in the light of Christ. They tell us – Christ is the world’s light; thus only Christ can say to us – Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. Only by the Savior’s coming among us in what we call the mystery of God’s enfleshment, that is, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, can he rescue us from the power of sin and death and bring us into his kingdom of light.

  2. Our scriptural passages today provide us with fascinating readings. Matthew is telling us that God’s saving call in Christ goes out to all the Gentiles. They, too, along with the Jews are called to salvation. We should note how artfully Matthew contrasts the unbelief of some among the Jews with the initial faith of the pagan astrologers. The Church recognizes in these mysterious figures the symbol of the Gentile people and their call to gospel faith and discipleship. Christmas represents the manifestation of God’s saving will for his people, Israel. Epiphany represents the manifestation of God’s saving will for all the Gentiles people. Epiphany is the great feast of the gospels’ catholicity.

  3. What Matthew has done in story form, St. Paul has done as a good school teacher. In the second reading, Paul announces to us here in Newton God’s plan of salvation, hidden from the beginning but now made manifest in Christ, God’s plan to form a new people who will constitute one body, the Church, uniting in Christ both Jew and Gentile, thereby erasing the barriers, first religious, but then also social, racial and economic that so badly divide the human family. The symbol of the Christmas crib is instructive – men and women of all races and nations, rich and poor alike, are called to faith and can freely respond in faith and come to offer God praise and homage as did those strange figures who came from the East.

  4. The Christmas-Epiphany feasts respond to questions many are asking today – Can God be found? Where is God to be found? Four hundred years ago unbelief was somewhat of a rarity involving some of those associated with the academic world. Now it has become a massive social phenomenon. Our age can be called “an age without God”. God is absent, banished from the public square, even from the very heart of life. There are many reasons for unbelief in our world today, some quite understandable, others not so. On this Feast of Epiphany, I would cite one reason out of many others which was expressed at the Second Vatican Council. The bishops were reflecting on the fact, that, taken as a whole, unbelief is not a spontaneous development but stems from a variety of causes including a critical reaction against religious belief in general, and against the Christian faith in particular. Vatican II says to us – “Hence, believers can have more than a little to do with the birth of atheism. To the extent that they neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, social and moral lives, they must be said to conceal rather than to reveal the authentic face of God.” The unbelief question has taken different forms down through history. The Old Testament question of belief or unbelief went this way – Is God present with his people Israel reconciling the world to himself, or is he not? The New Testament questions asks – Is God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – present and at work in his eternal Son made flesh, reconciling the world to himself, or is he not? The post-New Testament question, and this is ours today, runs as follows – Is God in Christ Jesus and through the Holy Spirit at work in the Church reconciling the world to himself, or is he not? Thus the God-question for us today is the Church-question, and we who are believers and seek to follow God’s Gospel can realize poignantly the words of the Second Vatican Council – “To the extent that we neglect our training in the faith, or teach and live by erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in our religious social and moral lives, we must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of God.”

  5. It is so very important for followers of Jesus to gather together as we do today, not only to remember Jesus, which we must do at all times, but to identify with the mission He began on the first Christmas. Are we going to be revealers or concealers of the mystery of God? As we enter into Holy Communion today with the risen Christ, we ratify our being his followers, and we say to all the world, in effect, we throw in our lot with Christ: what He stands for, we stand for; what He loves, we love; His way of life, His example and teachings become the pattern of our own. Any response to the Christmas-Epiphany feastdays less than this borders on the sentimental.